A Quota of Scary Things

Dear Ellie,

You've got a stubborn ductus arteriosus that doesn't want to close.  It's part of your circulatory system near your heart and it was supposed to close up later during development.  In your case, it hasn't.  While it remains open, blood shunts around your body in places it shouldn't be, meaning the oxygen in your blood becomes overextended and inefficiently nourish your cells.  Fortunately, this isn't too irregular for a micro-preemie like you.  If it doesn't pinch off on its own, they'll nuke you with some ibuprofen and that often resolves things.  Not a big problem, but if the problem doesn't disappear on its own it will stifle your feeding for awhile.  If medication doesn't work, they'll go in and fix the problem surgically, which is known to create future problems with speech.  I keep reminding myself that these are all the types of things we need to expect.  That there is a quota of scary things in your future.  I'd like to think that it helps.